1 Answer

The manufacturer database is generated by a script; the comment near the beginning of the script says:

Make-manuf creates a file containing ethernet OUIs and their company IDs. It merges the databases at IEEE with entries in our template file. Our file in turn contains entries from http://www.cavebear.com/archive/caveb... along with our own.

The script reads the comments at the top of "manuf.tmpl" and writes them to "manuf". It then joins the manufacturer listing in "manuf.tmpl" with the listing in "oui.txt", "iab.txt", etc, with the entries in "manuf.tmpl" taking precedence.

It's run periodically, with the resulting manuf file being committed to the Wireshark Git repository.

If the OUIs you're finding are in one of the IEEE databases, then either your manuf file was generated at a time when they weren't in one of those databases or the script isn't working correctly.

If the OUIs you're finding aren't in one of the IEEE databases, then they need to be added to the manuf.tmpl file.

Comments

I get that, but the manuf.tmpl file is just for my local instance of Wireshark, right?

Is there a way to update the "master" manufacturer database so that everyone benefits from the new information?

I frequently find devices that are not in the database and it is not like they are new devices that might not have been added yet. I thought there might be a way to add new information to the database for everyone.

but the manuf.tmpl file is just for my local instance of Wireshark, right

No. It's not read by Wireshark, it's read by the script, which is run when Wireshark is built, not when it's run.

Is there a way to update the "master" manufacturer database so that everyone benefits from the new information?

There's no single "master" database. There's the IEEE database, and there's the Wireshark manuf.tmpl file, which adds entries that, for whatever reason, aren't in the IEEE database.

To update the IEEE database, you would have to contact the IEEE Registration Authority, and they might only accept an OUI value from the vendor to whom the OUI is assigned, so you might not be able to update that.